August 2, 2002

Stuart Little 2

By PETER M. NICHOLS

VIOLENCE The falcon could frighten extremely small children, and there is clearly harmless racing around and banging about.

SEX None.

PROFANITY None.

FOR WHICH CHILDREN?

AGES 3-6 If the falcon isn't an issue, it's clear sailing.

AGES 7-10 Fine indeed up to the cut-off age.

n the Littles' Manhattan town house, it's as normal as it can be when a mouse is a member of the family. Mom (Ms. Davis) frets that Stuart could be stepped on during a soccer game later that morning. He isn't, but back home he climbs into a model plane being assembled by his brother, George (Jonathan Lipnicki), flies it outside and crashes.

The plane is wrecked, but again there is no damage to Stuart. On the streets of New York it is 2002, but the look and feel are the 1940's, when E. B. White wrote his children's classic. No one regards it at all odd that a mouse moves among them at the boat basin in Central Park or zips around town in a sports car with the top down.

As Stuart drives, a bird named Margalo plops out of the sky and into the passenger seat. Margalo is being chased by a falcon, who wouldn't mind a mouse morsel or even a cat the size of Snowbell, the long-haired, motor-mouthed prima donna of the Little household. Can mice be attracted to birds? Anyway, the smitten Stuart takes Margalo home for safekeeping. Snowbell predicts that Mom will have a conniption, but she is delighted to have the bird. So is Dad (Mr. Laurie), a relaxed fellow who takes a lenient view of anything involving his children.

Much of the film focuses on where one fits in the family unit and Stuart's feelings for Margalo. To kick matters into thrillerish gear (a sweet little thriller, to be sure), a missing ring reveals a theft scheme, and Margalo goes missing herself. Stuart plunges down a drain pipe and ends up on a garbage barge. The plane is put back into commission for a dogfight with the falcon. Having had enough around these parts, Margalo flies south for the winter. But as Stuart now realizes, in the spring birds fly north.

With the voices of Michael J. Fox, Melanie Griffith, Nathan Lane, James Woods and Steve ZahnDirected by Rob MinkoffPG72 minutes